Pakistanis’ money in Swiss Banks swells more than Indians

Swiss National Bank (SNB), Switzerland’s central bank released data on Thursday, making the latest revelations, said NDTV.

According to the report, the total funds linked to Pakistan in Swiss banks stood at CHF 1,513 million (PKR 161 bln) at the end of 2015, up approximately by 16 per cent from CHF 1,301 mln (PKR 141 bln) a year ago.

Now, this also included funds of nearly CHF 1,477 mln (PKR 158 bln) held direct by Pakistani nationals and CHF 36 million (PKR 3.6 bln) through fiduciaries.

To everyone’s surprise, this marks the second year when Pakistan-linked funds in Swiss banks have gone up while Indian-linked funds have gone down, which stood at CHF 1,217 million at the end of 2015 with a decline of 33 per cent, the report said.

This is the first time in the last three years that the funds linked to Pakistan in Swiss banks have exceeded that of Indians.

SNB also released data linked to China that its total Swiss Banks’ funds went down from CHF 8.16 billion to CHF 7.4 billion.

Several other countries also saw their funds declining in Swiss banks amid the international clampdown against the previous banking secrecy walls in the Alpine nation.

The United States (US) funds in Swiss banks fell to CHF 195 billion in 2015, from CHF 244 billion a year ago. While for the UK clients, their money rose from CHF 321 billion to CHF 345 billion.

However, it is important to mention here that the data revealed by SNB do not count the money foreign Swiss banks’ clients might be hiding in the name of shell companies or shadow entities, said NDTV.

The data also does not point towards any alleged black money, which has been a matter of a grave political uproar in many countries including Pakistan and India.

As per the SNB report, the total money linked to Pakistan in Swiss banks was at a record high level of CHF 3.43 billion in 2001, which later come down by far since then. By 2013, the numbers even fell to as low as CHF 1.23 billion, the lowest since 1996. But, it again went up by 6 per cent and 16 per cent during 2014 and 2015.